Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia [Paperback]

Jean Bottéro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2001

Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, based on articles originally published in L'Histoire by Jean Bottéro, André Finet, Bertrand Lafont, and Georges Roux, presents new discoveries about this amazing Mesopotamian culture made during the past ten years. Features of everyday Meopotamian life highlight the new sections of this book. Both gourmet cuisine and popular cookery used fish, meats, fruits, vegetables, and grains, available fresh or preserved (through methods still used today), and served with beer and wine. While feelings toward love and sex are rarely found in personal writings or correspondence, myths, prayers, and accounts of an acceptance of a wide range of behaviors (despite monogamy, prostitution flourished) argue that both were considered natural and necessary for a happy existence.

Under law woman existed as a man's property, yet stories show that wives frequently used beauty and wits to keep husbands in hand, and a wife's financial holdings remained her property, reverting to her family at her death. Women were allowed to participate in activities that could increase this wealth and some, pledged to the gods and shut away in group homes, were nonetheless able to participate in lucrative business ventures. Also included are accounts of the exceptional life of the queen and the women of Mari, the story of the great Queen Semiramis, and chapters on magic, medicine, and astrology.

The concluding section offers a fascinating in-depth comparison of ancient Sumerian myths and stories similar to those found in the Hebrew bible. The new information found in Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia makes a significant contribution, one that deepens our knowledge and understanding of this great, ancient civilization.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A popular work for understanding Mesopotamian social life... Written in a vigorous and interesting style with much useful information.

(Mark W. Chavalas Religious Studies Review )

The book covers many interesting topics not typically addressed in general texts such as cuisine, love and sex, women's rights, and the idea of sin. The book is written for the novice in the field, but it does not simply skim the surface or summarize the authors' longer works; rather, it makes accessible much interesting primary source material that is normally only found in scholarly book sand journals.

(Linda Bergstein Scherr Religious Studies Review )

In Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Jean Bottéro displays his immense learning, total command of the field, as well as a profound awareness of approaches used by scholars in other historical periods... This book is a well-rounded and appealing introduction to Mesopotamian civilization.

(Amélhie Kuhrt, University College, London )

Review

"In Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Jean Bottéro displays his immense learning, total command of the field, as well as a profound awareness of approaches used by scholars in other historical periods... This book is a well-rounded and appealing introduction to Mesopotamian civilization." -- Amélhie Kuhrt, University College, London

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (September 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801868645
• ISBN-13: 978-0801868641
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #453,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > History > Ancient > Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting, September 26, 2002

By 

magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Paperback)

If you're interested in ancient Mesopotamian civilization, you'll probably love this book. It's full of fascinating information about the day-to-day lives of the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians. Chapters include such topics as Love and Sex, Women's Rights, Food and Cuisine, the Law, Religion, and so on. The book is written mostly by Bottero, but there are also several other scholars who contribute some of the chapters. Most are well written and not too technical or difficult to read, and as I said, full of lots of interesting and intriguing information and facts.

The ancient Mesopotamians come across as practical, no-nonsense people who, in contrast to the ancient Egyptians, weren't especially religious and believed in living life in the here and now as best one could. Although they did have a religion, it was mostly for propitiating various gods and deities who they hoped would bestow their blessings on them in their personal or public affairs. There was a concept of the afterlife, but it was basically a dark, dingy, netherworld where not much happened, it seems, and they regarded the present life as far preferable to it.

A good example of their practical approach to affairs is that marriage was a simple contract without much ceremony. Women could marry who they wanted and could divorce much as men could, although adultery was tolerated much less for women than for men. A surprising fact is how extensive their food and cuisine was. According to the writer of the chapter, the Sumerians knew how to make hundreds of different types of breads, soups, beer, and other dishes, depending on the ingredients and how they were prepared.

Overall, a fine book and addition to the practical history and understanding of the ancient Mesopotamians.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining and insightful book for the general reader, November 19, 2004

By 

Ray Farmer (Concord, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Paperback)

"Everyday Life in Ancient Messopotamia" offers an interesting option to the general reader who is interested in Ancient Mesopotamia but is put off by most of the dry and academic texts that are currently available on this topic. As Bottero stated in his foreword, he wanted the reader to become acquainted with the Mesopotamian culture through vivid impressions, much as a tourist would gain when visiting a foreign country for the first time. All exaggerations aside, Bottero really manages to do a very good job of igniting the reader's interest in this part of the ancient world.

Although I felt that the chapters on food and wine were a bit overextended, the rest of the book provides a solid and entertaining discussion of Mesopotamia. The chapters dealing with women in Mesopotamian society were quite interesting, where Bottero suggests that women may have had more leverage power in dealing with men than would be suggested by the textual evidence. Additionally, Georges Roux's discussion of the origins of the Semiramis legend are equally appealing. One of the things that impressed me about this book was the ability of the various contributors to throw a new light on old ideas, thus allowing the reader to gain new insights. For example, one theory that made me think was Bottero's idea that the use of writing to communicate decrees made by the king may have prepared the Mesopotamians to accept the possibility that the gods might issue their decrees through the movements of the celestial bodies. And just as there were experts to read the texts, there originated the need to obtain experts in astrology who could interpret the heavenly bodies. I do not know if this is a widely supported idea in the Assyriological community, but nevertheless, the ability of the various contributors to communicate to the general reader is a definite strong point of this book.

I highly recommend this book as a good starting point to Mesopotamia, since it will leave the reader (like myself) wanting to learn more.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book on the subject, January 31, 2007

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Paperback)

This excellent book is a series of sixteen articles on the subject of life in ancient Mesopotamia. The articles are written by four leading authorities on the subject, and cover everything from the origins of the Sumerians to how they lived to what they believed. Indeed, I must say that I found the chapter, Love and Sex in Babylon to be quite interesting, covering a topic that most history books shy away from.

Overall, I found this to be an excellent book on the subject, informative without being dry and academic. Indeed, if you are interested in extending your knowledge of ancient Mesopotamia, then you must get this book. I give this book my highest recommendations.